A key challenge facing IoT developers and adopters is the complexity inherent in creating and managing IoT applications. IoT platforms are software and services that reduce this complexity by abstracting away from developers and users many of the horizontal features and functionality common to IoT applications across a range of use cases and verticals. However, there are hundreds of IoT platform vendors currently. This intelligence service sizes and forecasts the IoT platform market, and provides an assessment of the strategic issues and trends impacting the market.

Most automakers today have either kept their telematics service management in-house, or integrated it into their organization at a corporate level. However, the connected car market is changing rapidly, which is presenting exciting new opportunities for merchant-market connected-car platform vendors – enabling beneficial new service possibilities for drivers and passengers, alike.

With the UK due to leave the European Union on 29 March, its position as a hub for international broadcasters targeting the European Union could be disrupted. Research by IHS Markit suggests that all but 339 of the 1,039 TV channels licenced by UK regulator Ofcom will require licences from other countries.

Market forecasts of the cumulative volume of devices under management by IoT platforms and the resulting annual platform service revenue. These forecasts are global in scope, segmented by region, platform type, and device type, and cover the period from 2015 to 2030.

This scorecard report examines nine key platform vendors based on IHS Markit’s assessment of these vendors’ market opportunity. While there are currently hundreds of IoT platforms vendors, IHS Markit has chosen these nine companies as representative of key strategic approaches taken by many vendors in the overall IoT platforms market.

This report provides an assessment of the global market opportunity for the Internet of Things (IoT) platforms market segment known as “Application Enablement Platforms” (AEPs). IHS Markit developed this report from June 2018 through August 2018.

Our annual focus on the TV production sector looks at how companies have consolidated to adjust to a changing marketplace. Traditional models are under pressure, but there are many challenges in today’s highly diverse ecology.

On 15 October 2018, Arm and Intel announced that Arm would adopt Intel’s Secure Device Onboarding (SDO) technology as part of Arm’s Pelion IoT platform. This collaboration should facilitate IoT market growth by reducing complexity and risk in the device supply chain. Both Arm and Intel benefit from partnering, though Intel gains a more important strategic win by shoring up the relevance of the Intel x86 chip architecture for IoT applications in the face of the increasing traction of Arm’s Cortex-M and Cortex-A architectures in the IoT market.

While GE’s challenges are specific to the company, and not reflective of any negative trends in the wider IIoT platforms market, there is a question in the market as to whether traditional industrial equipment vendors are optimally-positioned to compete in providing IIoT platforms.

The UK Government has published guidance for the broadcasting and video-on-demand sector in the event that the country leaves the European Union (EU) on 29 March 2019 without an agreement on its future relationship with the other 27 countries. Similar guidance notes have been published for other sectors which will be impacted in a 'no deal' scenario. The government note states this is 'unlikely' to happen.

On 2 August 2018, Arm announced the acquisition of data management firm Treasure Data and the launch/re-branding of its IoT platform as “Pelion”. It reportedly acquired Mountain View, CA-based Treasure Data for about $600 million, making it one of the largest acquisitions in Arm’s history. At a time when the large, diverse IoT platform vendor landscape is slowly starting to consolidate, and many vendors are starting to focus more narrowly on the areas where they can differentiate, Arm is taking a contrarian approach by going full-stack, and broadly-horizontal.

Since rolling out worldwide in 2016, Amazon and Netflix have stepped up original production, both in the US and key international territories. IHS Markit has anlaysed the streaming platform's original production and assess what it means for the global entertainment business.